Four years ago, in the heart of a midwestern winter, I was piecing strips and squares of fabric together on my mom’s dining room table.

My second baby boy was due any day, and I knew I wouldn’t have the quilting finished for his birth, but I was confident it would be ready for his first birthday.

Last week, four years later, I pulled the last stitch taut, hid my knot under the binding, and snipped the thread. It was a work long in progress–but there is love in those stitches.

Here’s the whole quilt, spread out on my bed. I’m relieved that I still love the fabrics four years later!

The pattern is the same one I used for C’s quilt, and they have one fabric in common–a smoky blue printed with red umbrellas and rain boots.

The quilt is backed with a vintage alphabet print, from which I cut squares to show his initials–plus a random Y because I liked the yacht illustration. It turns out I should have picked a different letter, because B’s favorite part of this four-year labor of love is–wait for it:

…the letter T, which is (thank God) illustrated with a toy train.

He loves his quilt. At bedtime he wants it spread atop his other covers–reverse side up and with the top edge folded under so he can have ready access to his “T is for train” at all times.

Happy quilt day, my B. You are worth it–even if you do only like the back.

A recent weekend morning (when it was still winter around here): storytime with Daddy.

Museum ABC: This is the book from which C learned his ABCs…about four years ago. How can he be so old already? It’s true, what the old ladies tell you in the grocery store when you’re trying to figure out how to get your firstborn’s infant carseat in the cart: Babies grow up fast.

The book is still a favorite–and the parents actually still like reading it, which is saying something. And even though these babies are getting bigger, they still fit on our laps for a story. We hold them tight.

The big dark smear below the window is the original attempt to match the hallway paint, necessitated by the plaster that had to be patched beneath it, and made more significant by the fact that the hallway paint color continues in–and can be seen from–the living and dining rooms.

The splotches of color to the left of the window are sundry attempts to get a closer color match, including a series that I tried to mix myself (with post-it-notes to identify the various shades).

And the crowning glory: those catalog pages to the right of the window are placeholders for pictures I want to hang there. It’s a handy-dandy method for trying out a frame arrangement on your wall before you make holes in your wall (I got the idea here). But it turned into much longer-term decor than I had intended. And everyone who came over seemed to think I had taped my catalog wishlists to the wall. That’s disturbing.

The catalog pages came down yesterday, and the woodwork is taped off. It’s a measure of progress, anyway.

B came downstairs this morning and observed, “The blue tape is still there!”

When we made our plans, a couple of weeks ago, for J’s comp day, we had no notion that it would be almost 80 degrees. In March. In the Midwest. I thought we might go to an indoor children’s museum, because the weather was bound to be cool and probably gloomy to boot. Instead, when this glorious day dawned, we knew we were going to the zoo.

Toward the end of our tour, C asked to go see “the white lion” again. We duly walked back to the lion exhibit where the great cats were taking their ease together in the sun, but C only favored them with a glance and a nod. When we were once again on the other side of the zoo, he repeated his request. Eventually it dawned on us that he was talking about the white marble lions. So if you ask him to tell you his favorite animals at the zoo, he will say, “The meerkats and the white lions.”

While B was lobbying to avoid one of the indoor exhibits (he’s terrified by the dim entrances), C happily perched himself in a nearby tree. (We were reduced to bribery: they bravely went through three indoor exhibits in exchange for new matchbox cars at Target. It was worth it. Next time I’m hoping to persuade them to go in the Pachyderm House. And I think J may have secured a promise to visit the monkeys. Last year the monkeys–who were just minding their own monkey business and scratching each other’s backs–proved utterly horrifying to the boys. We are trying to grow their courage by degrees this year.)

Contemplating the camels.

Great. The paparazzi have arrived.

Grit your teeth and bear it.

Consulting the map with Daddy.

B loved the zebra. And the white lions, naturally.

Getting a better view.

I love this girl.

A little lunch before leaving.

The young fry came back bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Daddy and Mama came back exhausted, with headaches. But it was lovely for all of us–an idyll in the middle of our ordinary life and usual weather.